Following on from the first accident article: Harley Davidson Street Bob ambushed by Range Rover Vogue (I lost)
Well it’s now a little over 11 months since the bump. December the 20th is henceforth going to be celebrated (I hope) as ‘Will didn’t die’ day – probably won’t catch on Nationally, but we’re going to make it a small celebration with a little party. Inconvenient that it falls so close to Christmas, but there you go.
As the legal side of things is all finished, the Courts released all the reports and videos etc. The one below is the least troubling of these, showing only how the incident happened with no graphic detail or gore. The video taken from the bus coming from the other direction is, on the other hand, apparently very graphic and high-res – showing my ‘flight’ over the Range Rover and the ‘landing’, I use those terms very loosely – there was very little graceful about the whole thing. I’ve not watched that one yet 🙂 I’ve sped bits of the video up and slowed bits down for for efficiency and clarity…
You see him reverse off his drive, drive up the pavement, wait till I come on the scene at 47 seconds past and then execute a u-turn (or attempt to execute). To my surprise, I did hit the brakes and didn’t hit him at 90 degrees – which explains the extensive damage to the left leg. I feel strangely detached watching this video – almost as though it’s not involving me at all.
On the injuries front, most seem to have healed, or be healing, quite well. This morning I turned up at Hospital very early to have a significant amount of the metalwork removed from both fore-arms and wrists, operation cancelled as my Consultant had been called to an urgent trauma – not bothered in the slightest, if some poor bastard needs her urgent attention then he’s lucky he’s in her hands and I wish him well. I’ve been in that boat. Rescheduled to Thursday (28th Nov), so, could have been worse (update: now removed, went well but quite sore).
Not looking forward to the general anaesthetic, they won’t do nerve blocks as it’s both arms – would make pushing myself around in the chair a little awkward – one leg power, no steering. On the other hand (lol) looking forward to getting wrist functionality back again – it’s been remarkably inconvenient having a fused dominant wrist – much more so than you’d imagine. I’ll also be able to start exercising better.! I’ve been limited in what I can do on that front and am currently disturbingly soft in areas – a situation I intend to change. Shoulders and upper arms are doing OK though – getting a man-powered chair rather than electric was a definitely a good choice.
The femur, however, is still pretty screwed. Well, screwed screwed, actually. No improvement to speak of. Not really surprising as apparently it looked like somebody had wedged a bale of straw into my leg at the scene – pretty messed up. Stops me doing pretty much everything I used to enjoy – it sucks, but as I may have stated previously, what can you do? 🙂
Got the new chair… a ‘Quickie’ (seriously) in Tutti-Frutti orange. Made to measure, cambered quick-release wheels, beautifully engineered, fast and maneuverable.
Never thought I’d be in a position to get excited about a new wheelchair… it’s no Rocket III or Harley, but I can still appreciate the workmanship. I don’t use the foot rest brackets pictured (removable) and have a support bracket for the left leg instead. Was sorely tempted to go for the ‘Flamingo Glitter’, but the orange works.
To summarise then: on the down side; quite badly hurt, no bike, still predominantly stuck in a chair. On the plus side: still here, slowly getting stronger. It’s a long, slow, road – but when I think back to how I was 9 – 11 months ago… well, that was crap – not so deep now though, in the grand scheme of things.